Smoking during cancer treatment is associated with reduced treatment response and cancer recurrence in patients with tobacco-related cancers. The purpose of this study was to examine smoking characteristics in head and neck cancer patients ( = 503) with a history of smoking and examine the impact of an intensive clinical tobacco intervention to patients who were currently smoking. All participants completed an interviewer-administered questionnaire at study enrollment which examined smoking behaviours, motivations to quit, and strategies used to cessate smoking.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Many patients diagnosed with head-and-neck cancer are current or former smokers. Despite the well-known adverse effects of smoking, continuation of smoking during cancer treatment is associated with reduced efficacy of that treatment and with cancer recurrence. In the present study, we examined smoking characteristics in patients with head-and-neck cancer near the time of cancer treatment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Access to hospice palliative care may improve quality of life, reduce the use of potentially aggressive end-of-life care and allow for death to occur outside of an acute care hospital. The aim of this study was to examine the impact of an ambulatory hospice palliative care program on end-of-life care compared to care received by a matched control group of deceased patients.
Methods: This retrospective study included patients who received hospice palliative care through the Symptom Management Program in Sudbury, Ontario, during 2012-2015.
Background: Access to palliative care has been associated with improving quality of life and reducing the use of potentially aggressive end-of-life care. However, many challenges and barriers exist in providing palliative care to residents in northern and rural settings in Ontario, Canada.
Aim: The purpose of this study was to examine access to palliative care and associations with the use of end-of-life care in a decedent cohort of northern and southern, rural and urban, residents.